Igboid:


He avoided your probe on linguistics for obvious reasons.
They will crash his argument.

Aboh/Ukwuani call year "efor" and not "ahfor".
No way in hell Olaudo was from Aboh.

bigfrancis21:


So your assertion is that Olaudah is from Aboh and he isn’t Igbo? Aboh and Eboe are two different words pronounced differently. How you think that Aboh and Eboe are the same baffles me.

Next you asked why he would have been taken through the Igbo hinterland and not through the river Niger canal, the author said so himself. I didn’t make it up. He said so in his memoir. Which makes me to believe, did you completely read his book from start to finish? I first read his book in 2007 and have read it again and again since then.

Olaudah didn’t travel down the river Niger canal. He said so himself. Therefore your hypothesis of him being from Aboh is probably unlikely. It is very obvious that several parts of Igboland were under the Benin kingdom and his village was probably among, however it doesn’t make him any less Igbo.

You were unable to answer AjaanaOka’s relevant questions. Before you come up with hypothesis such as yours you need to have your facts right and be sure of your facts. You are glossing over significant linguistic and geographic evidence that the author left behind in his own memoir over your own personal hypothesis that suit your nuances, just because you believe within you that your hypothesis is correct. Next, instead of coming up with objective counter evidence for his origins, you present subjective evidence and attack the entire Igbo tribe for ‘claiming him’.

Your hypothesis will hold strong if you can do more research on your own and prove that Aboh or Ashaka people call year ‘afo’, had/have mgburichi facial scaring and fish was a rarity in 18th century Aboh/Ashaka.

Igboid:


He avoided your probe on linguistics for obvious reasons.
They will crash his argument.

Aboh/Ukwuani call year "efor" and not "ahfor".
No way in hell Olaudo was from Aboh.

Igboid:
The other time,it was someone from Etsako in Edo state that was claiming Olauda,now it's someone from Igbophobic Ukwuani.
All this even when the man in question went around the world calling himself an Igbo.

IgbuduMonkey:
Aboh pronounce It as "Ahfor", though Ukwuanis pronounce is as "efor".

AjaanaOka:

I hope you're not trying to act like literature doesn't exist on Aboh and Ukwuani vocabularies. Or that real-life speakers of the lects do not exist. When did the people of that axis drop "asua" for "afo/efo"?

You're right about Aboh favoring an initial 'a' and Ukwuani favoring an initial 'e'.
Eg. Ewo (Ukwuani)/Awo (Aboh) for toad, etc.

But you're not being honest about the word used in that axis for 'year'. Either that or you don't know.

IgbuduMonkey:
To be honest I do not know but will do a research on that and revert to you. I have noticed your loud silence on the Eboe debate. What is your opinion on that

IgbuduMonkey:
he never called himself Igbo. Provide evidence please

Igboid:


You are creating a non existent argument.

Eboe was how Igbo was written in the past.
You don't expect to see Igbo in historical records.
The document you provided told you that the Eboe exists on both sides of the river, more on the East than on the left.
How is that not a description of Igboland?

IgbuduMonkey:
Here is what the document actually says:

Abó, the Eboe or Ibu of Lander and of Allen, is
the name of a town and also of a district extending
along both sides of the river, from the Orú country
towards Igára. It forms one of the sections of the Great
I'gbo (Ibo) territory ; and though by no means the
largest, is, from its position along the Kwóra, one of the most important. The sovereignty, since the
death of Obí, having, as I have mentioned, been
partly in abeyance, many towns which were under
his rule have ceased to pay tribute, and have become
independent. The dialect spoken along this tract is called also Abó, and it is readily understood over the
whole of I'gbo

From the above, it is obvious that Abó and Eboe means the same thing. It is also clear that these people have a Sovereign ruler called Obi. It is also very clear that the writer knows the difference between Eboe and I'gbo.

These documents I am sharing were written in the 1800s and it is from them rewriters of history have dubiously equated Eboe as Igbo to unsuspected readers. It is a lie that has to stop

IgbuduMonkey:
Bigfrancis21, with all these literature evidences, do you still argue that the historical Eboe is Igbo?

Igboid:
The other time,it was someone from Etsako in Edo state that was claiming Olauda,now it's someone from Igbophobic Ukwuani.
All this even when the man in question went around the world calling himself an Igbo.

bigfrancis21:


Do you have comprehension deficiencies?

Abo, the Eboe or Ibo or Lander and of Allen, is a name of a town - Lander (the Lander brothers: https://library.princeton.edu/visual_materials/maps/websites/africa/lander/lander.html) and Allen were people who had previously explored the River Niger and visited Abo. The text that you presented clearly makes a difference between Abo and Eboe. Abo - the Igbo referred to by Lander and Allen, is the name of a town...[b] It (Abo) also forms one section of the Great Igbo Territory.

No where in your text did the author mention nor insinuate that Abo and Eboe were the same. Your text clearly defines Abo as the name of a town and also describes its geographical extent. It also describes Abo as being part of the greater Igbo people. This book was written years after the Lander brothers visited and the author used the correct Igbo spelling versus 'Eboe' or 'Ibu' as used by the Lander brothers and Allen years before after they visited. In other words, 'Abo, the Eboe or Ibo or Lander and of Allen' - this is an in-text citation by the author citing the previous visitation and works of Lander and Allen and adding more information to the previous.

An Island very close to the Atlantic Ocean in Georgia USA is named, 'Ebo's Landing' after a group of 75 plus Igbo slaves who preferred to drown in the ocean in hopes that their spirits will return to Africa instead of serve as slaves. The Ebo used here refers to Aboh town right?

It's very evident why Nigerians fail basic TOEFL exams in large numbers despite speaking what seems like English. Basic passage comprehension is a tedious task.

If this is all that you can furnish as evidence to back up your hypothesis, I'm afraid you might have to come up with something better,

Igboid:


Nope. I shared this same document you are posting about here before you.
If you are cleffstone, then I remember exposing you to this same document for the first time in the past

What the document is saying was that Lander and co in their early visit, mistook Aboh to represent the whole Igbo(eboe).
But with the new visit, the one who made the recording, noted that Aboh was only a part of an extensive Igbo country lying on both sides of the Niger.

Aboh and Eboe cannot mean same thing.
Unless you are saying that Eboes of Bonny were from Aboh as well.

Here is more of Captain Crow writing Igbo as Eboe too.
Was he also referring to Aboh?

IgbuduMonkey:
He was certainly referring to Aboh Kingdom. There was an Aboh kingdom that stretched from Idah to Iru(Ijaw) area which had the Obi of Aboh as it's sovereign ruler and Aboh town as its capital. The Kingdom consisted of mostly Igbo speaking tribes but also included other tribes including Isoko and Itsekiri. [there are Isokos that will tell you that they are abohs]

The Aboh Kingdom was very powerful and influential around the time of Lander and had numerous gunboats on the lower Niger. That the Obi of Abohs influence extended as far as Idah is evidenced by the fact that his son, Ajieh went to Igarra to settle some disputes in 1854. So, Yes, Aboh/Eboe kingdom was on the Western and Eastern banks. Even today, we have Aboh settlements on the Eastern banks in Today's Rivers state.

Many of Captain Crows description of the Eboe people point to the fact that they are Aboh people. For Example, he said the Eboes believe in reincarnation, a strong believe in Aboh culture. He also said the Eboes looked like Benins. As I have told you guys before, Aboh people are from Benin. Also interesting is the fact that the Bonny people like Abohs revere the Iguana. So many things in that memoir that reveals the Eboes are actually Abohs

IgbuduMonkey:
Abó, the Eboe or Ibu of Lander and of Allen, is the name of a town and also of a district extending along both sides of the river, from the Orú country towards Igára. It forms one of the sections of the Great I'gbo (Ibo) territory

Definition of "or": introducing a synonym or explanation of a preceding word or phrase.

From the above, Abó, Eboe and Ibu are synonyms. It is interesting that Baikie went further to say this Abó or Eboe forms a section of the great I'gbo territory hence differentiating Eboe from Igbo.

In contemporary times, Aboh is still called Eboe by some of her neighbours in case you are not aware.

I will not insult you like you have insulted me. I will only educate you and set the record straight.

ChebeNdigboCalm:


Regardless of if he was from Aboh or not. Aboh just as described is clearly Igbo. And was wrongly perceived as our capital, so the main point is already lost.

IgbuduMonkey:
Aboh was never perceived as the capital of Igbo. Never. It is the ploy of the Igbos to claim the rich history of Aboh that has led to this false narrative. Lander wrote in 1930 that the city(Eboe) is the capital of a Kingdom of the same name. The Aboh town still exists today and that is what Lander referred to as the Eboe city. The Eboe kingdom is beyond the Aboh town and included places that are now autonomous. The historical evidences are there and you only have to go to that axis to confirm the reach of the old Aboh Kingdom.

ChebeNdigboCalm:


Very funny. So you are claiming that by Eboe Lander did not mean Igbo people. You really think that me as an Igbo person read his book independently with no one telling me to. And by finding it by myself, I attempted a ploy just by reading the obvious yet YOU are not attempting a ploy by reading your own beliefs into it. The “historical evidences” are simply little things taken out of context to mask the larger fact that “Eboe” back then referred to the territory from agbor to Nsukka to ezza to arochukwu to Aboh.

IgbuduMonkey:
The bolded is a statement without a pinch of evidence

One day, when all our people were gone out to their works as usual, and only I and my dear sister were left to mind the house, two men and a woman got over our walls, and in a moment seized us both, and, without giving us time to cry out, or make resistance, they stopped our mouths, and ran off with us, into the nearest wood. Here they tied our hands, and continued to carry us as far as they could, till night came on, when we reached a small house, where the robbers halted for refreshment and spent the night. We were then unbound, but were unable to take any food; and, being quite overpowered by fatigue and grief, our only relief was some sleep, which allayed our misfortune for a short time. The next morning we left the house, and continued travelling all the day. For a long time we had kept the woods, but at last we came into a road which I believed I knew. I had now some hopes of being delivered; for we had advanced but a little way before I discovered some people at a distance, on which I began to cry out for their assistance; but my cries had no other effect than to make them tie me faster and stop my mouth, and then they put me into a large sack. They also stopped my sister's mouth, and tied her hands; and in this manner we proceeded till we were out of the sight of these people. When we went to rest the following night they offered us some victuals; but we refused it; and the only comfort we had was in being in one another's arms all that night, and bathing each other with our tears. But alas! we were soon deprived of even the small comfort of weeping together. The next day proved a day of greater sorrow than I had yet experienced; for my sister and I were then separated, while we lay clasped in each others arms. It was in vain that we besought them not to part us; she was torn from me, and immediately carried away, while I was left in a state of distraction not to be described. I cried and
grieved continually; and for several days, did not...me, ordered me to be taken care of, and not ill treated. Soon after this my master's only daughter, and child by his first wife, sickened and died, which affected him so much that for some time he was almost frantic, and really would have killed himself, had he not been watched and prevented. However, in a small time afterwards he recovered, and I was again sold. I was now carried to the left of the sun's rising, through many dreary wastes and dismal woods, amidst the hideous roarings of wild beasts. The people I was sold to used to carry me very often, when I was tired, either on their shoulders or on their backs. I saw many convenient well-built sheds along the road, at proper distances, to accommodate the merchants and travellers, who lay in those buildings along with
- 59 - their wives, who often accompany them; and they always go well armed. From the time I left my own nation I always found somebody that under stood me till I came to the sea coast....

Another proof of Equiano's Igbo origin and actual experience of the Middle Passage is the fact that he knew about a very remote and, until recently, unknown town of Tinimah (which he called Tinmah), where he claimed to have been bought by a widow. [b]His description of the geographical location of Tinimah and the landscape of the place, have been found to be accurate. Yet Tinimah is so remote and unknown that two hundred years after Equiano, no Nigerian Equiano scholar could place it on the Nigerian map, including those who live and work in the region of the Niger Delta where Tinimah is actually located. Tinimah is so anonymous that even in this age of the Internet it had to be 'discovered'. Only five months ago, my good friend and fellow Equiano scholar, Prof. Dorothy Ukaegbu, called me on the phone and said, "I have discovered Tinmah", and my first reaction was to ask, "Where is it?" And she said, "It is in Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers State. I then went searching and found out that she was right. Tinimah and the twin town of Finimah attracted media attention only recently when the Federal government in the bid to develop the Niger Delta, cited an LNG (Liquified Natural Gas) project in the area and had to move the communities to another location. [/b] That was how Tinimah and Finimah first drew public attention. Other than that, Tinimah has remained unknown and unheard of except in Equiano's Narrative for more than two hundred years. Here again Equiano's description was more than accurate: the creeks which he called rivulets, the cocoanut trees which formed and still form the vegetation of Tinimah, the Ijaw coastal-dwellers of Bonny who still live, eat and sleep in their canoes. Equiano said that the family which bought him in Tinmah spoke his language and treated him as their equal. The reason is that many inhabitants of this area of the Niger Delta are descended from former Igbo slaves. Such was the famous King Jaja of Opobo, also like Equiano, a native of Orlu province, who rose from the rank of a slave to become king of Opobo and one of the most famous monarchs of pre-colonial Nigeria. Opobo is not too far from Bonny where Equiano's Tinmah is located. Here again is undisputed evidence that Equiano's middle passage was experienced and not fabricated.

IgbuduMonkey:
The bolded is a statement without a pinch of evidence

bigfrancis21:
IgbuduMonkey

I have decided to compose this post for better visual clarification on your theory that Olaudah may have been from Aboh. Posted below are 4 different images of Aboh from Google Maps showing its closeness to the River Niger and its vantage distance from either Calabar or Bonny port. Now with this visual image in mind, I have posted an excerpt from Olaudah's very own memoir of his capture and journey towards the slave port to be sold:



Comparing Olaudah's memoir of his capture and the location of Aboh right next to the River Niger, this is highly impossible. After his capture, Olaudah and his captors journeyed on land for several weeks, with him exchanging several masters until he arrived at the Sea Coast (Atlantic ocean). Surely, if his Aboh origins were true, then crossing/ferrying across the River Niger should have been mentioned. Olaudah was sold at Bonny Port (he confirmed this by mentioning arriving at a city called Tinmah shortly before he was sold, which is located on Bonny Island and still exists till today).

IgbuduMonkey:

I came to the banks of a
large river, which was covered with canoes, in which the people
appeared to live with their household utensils and provisions of all
kinds. I was beyond measure astonished at this, as I had never before
seen any water larger than a pond or a rivulet:

Olaudah crossed the Niger, I am surprised you don't know this since you claimed you have read his book a thousand times

That said, it is also important to note that Olaudah was not carried in a straight line to the coast, neither was his original captor's plan to sell him off at the cost.

Lastly, goods and slaves from the ashaka area to the coast would pass through Aboh to the coast beween Bonny and Old Calabar

All the nations and people I had hitherto passed through resembled our own in their manners, customs, and language: but I came at length to a country, the inhabitants of which differed from us in all those particulars. I was very much struck with this difference, especially when I came among - 67 -a people who did not circumcise, and eat without washing their hands. They cooked also in iron pots, and had European cutlasses and cross bows, which were unknown to us, and fought with their fists amongst themselves. Their women were not so modest as ours, for they eat, and drank, and slept, with their men. But above all, I was amazed to see no sacrifices or offerings among them. In some of those places the people ornamented themselves with scars, and likewise filed their teeth very sharp. They wanted sometimes to ornament me in the same manner, but I would not suffer them; hoping that I might some time be among a people who did not thus disfigure themselves, as I thought they did. At last I came to the banks of a large river, which was covered with canoes, in which the people appeared to live

- 62 -
To that Heaven which protects the weak from the strong, I commit the care of your innocence and virtues, if they have not already received their full reward, and if your youth and delicacy have not long since fallen victims to the violence of the African trader, the pestilential stench of a Guinea ship, the seasoning in the European colonies, or the lash and lust of a brutal and unrelenting overseer. I did not long remain after my sister. I was again sold, and carried through a number of places, till, after travelling a considerable time, I came to a town called Tinmah, in the most beautiful country I had yet seen in Africa. It was extremely rich, and there were many rivulets which flowed through it, and supplied a large pond in the centre of the town, where the people washed. Here I first saw and tasted cocoa nuts,

IgbuduMonkey:

I came to the banks of a
large river, which was covered with canoes, in which the people
appeared to live with their household utensils and provisions of all
kinds. I was beyond measure astonished at this, as I had never before
seen any water larger than a pond or a rivulet:

Olaudah crossed the Niger, I am surprised you don't know this since you claimed you have read his book a thousand times

That said, it is also important to note that Olaudah was not carried in a straight line to the coast, neither was his original captor's plan to sell him off at the cost.

Lastly, goods and slaves from the ashaka area to the coast would pass through Aboh to the coast beween Bonny and Old Calabar

ChebeNdigboCalm:


It’s funny you say that yet you are making claims that are borderline insane.
Here are some parts of Baikie’s book. Someone who made direct reference to Lander. Abo people understood they were a district of the Igbo people even back then.

IgbuduMonkey:

I came to the banks of a
large river, which was covered with canoes, in which the people
appeared to live with their household utensils and provisions of all
kinds. I was beyond measure astonished at this, as I had never before
seen any water larger than a pond or a rivulet:

Olaudah crossed the Niger, I am surprised you don't know this since you claimed you have read his book a thousand times

That said, it is also important to note that Olaudah was not carried in a straight line to the coast, neither was his original captor's plan to sell him off at the cost.

Lastly, goods and slaves from the ashaka area to the coast would pass through Aboh to the coast beween Bonny and Old Calabar